Tag Archives: dj lessons

I Finally upgraded from the nanoPAD to an Akai MPD24. I really love this thing.

Geeky Gigs #9 is a bit of a hodgepodge mix up of styles, kinda trap, kinda vaporwave, kinda trip hop, and just kinda weird. I cut up son Janet Jackson, 808, casio rapman, my own real drum samples, some vinyl drum samples and some synth parts and bass lines using the UVI digital sensations and Plastique VST. Everything is live sequenced and triggered in Ableton Live Intro.
The end is a bit of improv. Hope you like it!

If you’re just getting started playing pads, these videos can be of great help. They helped me quite a bit. Even if you already play, there’s some great techniques shown in Jeremy’s vids. If you’ve never seen Jeremy Ellis play pads, it is truly a sight to behold. He is seriously one of my favorite “drummers” right now.

If you’re looking to buy a pad controller, I recommend the Akai MPD26 below. They’re very affordable and very well made. I have the 24 which is very similar but no longer being produced.

A Facebook friend of mine shared this video by jimpavloff who painstakingly recreated Prodigy’s Voodoo People in Ableton Live and went so far as to even track down all of the original sample sources.

It’s pretty cool to see somebody dissect a song like this and also pretty informative as to ways you can use and manipulate samples. Definitely a cool vid and worth watching the whole thing. Here’s the original as well to compare.